Who owns your business’s Facebook Page?
Who has full control of your Instagram account? Which advertising account belongs to your business? And, perhaps most importantly, who would still be able to access everything if the person who originally set it all up disappeared tomorrow?
If you know the answers immediately, that’s a good start. If you’re thinking “I’m not actually sure…”, you’re certainly not alone.
Meta has changed the way its business tools are structured over the years, and many businesses have built their setup gradually rather than sitting down and planning it from the beginning. An employee created a Facebook Page. Someone else connected Instagram. An agency set up advertising. A web developer added tracking. Another person created a Business Portfolio because nobody could find the original one.
At the time, each decision probably seemed perfectly sensible. A few years later, everything can still appear to work perfectly. You can post to Facebook, update Instagram and even run advertising without realising that the underlying setup has become complicated, outdated or dependent on people who are no longer involved with the business. Until, of course, you need to change something.
That’s why this isn’t really an article about learning another confusing Meta interface. It’s about something much more important: Does your business actually control its own Meta presence?
What is a Meta Business Portfolio?
The terminology around Meta can be confusing, particularly if you’ve been using Facebook for business for several years. You may still hear people talk about Meta Business Manager, while Meta’s current business environment uses Business Portfolios alongside Business Suite, Ads Manager and other business tools.
For this article, you don’t need to get too hung up on the terminology. The important thing is to understand what the business-level structure is there to do.
Think of your Business Portfolio as the place where your business’s Meta assets and the people or organisations managing them can be brought together. Depending on how your business uses Meta, this can include your Facebook Page, Instagram account, advertising account, tracking assets, employees, agencies and other partners.
So the question isn’t simply: “Do we have a Business Portfolio?”
It’s: “Is our Business Portfolio set up around the business correctly?”
Guide: Want to get to grips with the names, what does which and how to understand it? We have a comprehensive guide on Meta Business Manager, Suite and Portfolio explaining the differences, the important parts, and how to use it.
Your business should control its own digital assets
This is one of the easiest things to overlook because being able to log into your Facebook Page doesn’t necessarily tell you who has ultimate control of the wider business setup. Your business should know where its important Meta assets sit and who has control of them. That includes the assets you’re using today, as well as anything you may need in the future.
For example, if an employee originally created your Facebook Page, you don’t want your entire social media presence to become dependent on that individual’s personal account. Equally, if an agency helped you set everything up, you should understand which assets belong to your business and what access has been given to the agency. There’s an important distinction here between ownership and access.
An agency can manage your Meta presence without owning your business’s digital assets. Your staff can have the access they need to do their jobs without every member of the team having complete control. The business itself should remain in a position to manage those relationships and make changes when necessary.
The “someone else set it up” problem
One of the most common reasons businesses end up with complicated Meta setups is also one of the most understandable. Nobody planned for it to become messy. Obviously. Unless an act of very specific malice, it’s just one of those things that happens.
Someone simply needed to get Facebook working, so they created the Page. Later, somebody needed to run an advert, so an advertising account was created. A marketing agency came on board and connected a few things. A member of staff left and someone else took over. A new agency arrived and needed access.
Perhaps, at some point, somebody couldn’t find the original Business Portfolio, so they created another one. None of these individual decisions necessarily caused a problem at the time. The difficulty comes when they accumulate over several years and nobody has a complete picture of how everything fits together.
You can end up with a setup that works perfectly well for everyday posting but becomes surprisingly difficult to manage when you need to make an important change. That’s why it’s worth looking beyond whether your Facebook and Instagram accounts are currently working. A healthy Meta setup should also be understandable and manageable.
Guide: We understand just how easy it is to get lost with your Meta set up. That’s why we created an easy guide on Meta Business Manager with set up and troubleshooting tips! If you need a bit of extra guidance, you should be able to find the answers there! If not, why not get in touch and we’ll see what we can do to unravel your Meta Business tangle!
What should your Business Portfolio contain?
There isn’t a magic number of assets every business should have. A small local business might only need a Facebook Page, Instagram account and advertising account, while a larger organisation could have many more assets, people and external partners. What matters is that the structure makes sense for your business and that you understand what is there.
Start by identifying your main assets. Is the correct Facebook Page connected to the business, and does the business have the appropriate level of control? Is your professional Instagram account connected to the right business assets? Do you know which advertising account belongs to your business, even if you’re not currently running adverts?
It’s also worth looking at tracking assets and working out what exists, what is actually being used and whether anything has been left behind from an old website, developer or agency.
Then look at the people and organisations with access. Can you recognise everyone who has access to your business assets? Can you explain why they need it? Are there former employees or agencies still connected?
The aim isn’t to create the most complicated setup possible. It’s simply to have one that you understand.
People and permissions: who can actually do what?
This is where good organisation can make a real difference.
Your business may have several people involved in its digital marketing, but they won’t necessarily need access to everything. Someone who schedules social media content may need access to your Facebook Page and Instagram account, while an advertising specialist may need access to your advertising account and relevant tracking assets. A web developer might only need access to a particular technical asset, while an agency may require access to several assets to manage your marketing.
Giving everyone full control isn’t necessarily the answer.
A better approach is to give people the access they need to carry out their role and no more than is appropriate. That makes the setup easier to manage when people and responsibilities change. If somebody leaves the business, you can remove their access. If an agency relationship ends, you can remove the agency. If somebody changes role, you can review their permissions.
It sounds like basic housekeeping, but it’s exactly the sort of housekeeping that gets put off because everything appears to be working. The problem is that you often don’t discover the consequences until you need to make a change.
What happens when the person who set everything up leaves?
This is the scenario that we would really implore businesses to think about.
Imagine your Facebook Page was originally set up by an employee who left the company three years ago. The Page still works. You can still post. Customers can still find you. So what’s the problem?
The problem might only become apparent when you need to do something that requires a higher level of access.
Perhaps you’re changing agency. Maybe you want to connect your Instagram account, start advertising, change an important business setting or respond to a request from Meta to verify something. Suddenly, you discover that the person who originally set everything up was the one with the highest level of control — and nobody knows exactly how to recover it.
A small piece of digital housekeeping has suddenly become a much bigger problem.
Your business shouldn’t depend on one person’s Facebook login.
A properly structured setup should give the business continuity, even when the people managing it change.
What if your agency set everything up?
Working with an agency doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have control of your own Meta assets. In fact, it’s particularly important to understand the distinction between ownership and access when an external business is involved.
Your agency may need access to your Page, Instagram account, advertising account or other assets to carry out its work. That’s perfectly normal. The important thing is that you understand how that access has been provided and what happens if you stop working together.
If the relationship ended tomorrow, could your business continue accessing its own assets? Could you remove the agency’s access? Do you know which advertising account your campaigns are running through? Do you know where your tracking assets are?
If the answer is “I’m not sure – our agency deals with all of that”, it’s worth finding out.
You don’t need to become a Meta expert. You simply need to make sure your business isn’t locked out of its own digital infrastructure.
What about duplicate Business Portfolios?
This is another problem that can appear when businesses try to solve Meta problems themselves. Someone can’t find the original Business Portfolio, so they create another one. Then they can’t connect an asset because it already belongs somewhere else. They create another account or advertising asset, and suddenly there are multiple Business Portfolios, advertising accounts or tracking assets.
Nobody is quite sure which one is the “real” one.
If this sounds familiar, don’t immediately create something else to try to fix it.
Take a step back and investigate what already exists. The missing Page, advertising account or Business Portfolio may still be there. You may simply not have the right permissions to see or manage it, or you may be looking in the wrong place.
Sometimes the answer isn’t creating something new.
It’s finding and fixing what you’ve already got.
A good Meta setup should make change easier
One of the best ways to test your Meta setup is to imagine that something changes.
What happens if your social media manager leaves? What happens if you change marketing agency? What happens if the business owner retires? What happens if you decide to start advertising? What happens if a new member of staff needs to manage Instagram? What happens if your website developer needs access to tracking?
If every scenario involves somebody hunting through old emails trying to find the person who originally set everything up, your Meta structure probably needs some attention. A good setup should make change manageable, rather than making every change feel like an emergency.
A simple Meta ownership check
You don’t need to understand every Meta setting to carry out a useful health check.
Start by making sure you can identify the business that controls your main Meta assets and the people within the business who have the appropriate level of access. Then look through the people who have access. Make sure you recognise them and understand why they need access. If somebody has left the business, check whether their access has been removed. Do the same with external partners and agencies. If you see a business you no longer work with, investigate why it still has access.
Next, check your main assets. Make sure the correct Facebook Page and Instagram account are connected to the correct business setup, and identify which advertising account belongs to the business. Even if you’re not advertising at the moment, knowing where your advertising account sits can save a lot of hassle later.
It’s also worth checking your tracking setup. You don’t need to understand all the technical details, but you should know what tracking assets exist, what they’re connected to and whether they’re still being used.
Finally, check whether your business has more than one Business Portfolio. If it does, don’t immediately assume that you need all of them. Find out why they exist and whether they’re still required before creating, deleting or moving anything.
A few other things worth checking
If you’re carrying out a Meta housekeeping exercise, there are a few other areas worth looking at while you’re there.
Make sure appropriate security measures are in place for people with important levels of access, including two-factor authentication where available and appropriate. Check that your business information is still up to date, particularly if your business name, website or other important details have changed.
It’s also worth documenting the important information internally. You don’t need a huge technical manual. Even a simple record of your Business Portfolio, Facebook Page, Instagram account, advertising account and the people with important access can be incredibly useful if someone leaves unexpectedly. And don’t wait for a crisis before checking it again. A periodic review can prevent years of digital clutter building up.
Most importantly, don’t make unnecessary changes just because you don’t understand your current setup. Meta assets can have connections and dependencies that aren’t immediately obvious, so disconnecting things, deleting assets or creating replacements at random can sometimes make the situation harder to resolve. When in doubt, investigate first.
Meta Business Portfolio troubleshooting: what if something isn’t working?
Sometimes the first sign that your Meta setup needs attention is that something simply stops working. You might be unable to connect your Instagram account, find an advertising account, add a new person, access a Page or connect an asset to your Business Portfolio.
Before creating a new account or deleting anything, work out what the actual problem is.
The important thing with Meta troubleshooting is not to treat every problem as a reason to create something new.
Find out what already exists before you start rebuilding it.
What does “good” look like?
A good Meta Business setup doesn’t necessarily look complicated. In fact, the opposite is often true. You should be able to look at your setup and understand:
This is our business.
These are our assets.
These are the people who work with them.
These are the external partners we’ve authorised.
This is our advertising account.
This is how our Facebook and Instagram accounts connect.
And, importantly:
If the person who originally set everything up leaves tomorrow, the business is still in control.
That’s the real test. It’s not about having the newest Meta terminology or knowing where every button lives. It’s about making sure your business’s digital presence isn’t accidentally dependent on an individual person, an old agency or a Business Portfolio that nobody remembers creating.
Your Meta setup is part of your business infrastructure
Facebook and Instagram might feel like marketing channels rather than serious business infrastructure. But once you’ve built an audience, connected your website, started advertising and used social media to generate enquiries, those accounts become valuable business assets.
Losing access to them, discovering that an old agency controls something important or finding out that nobody inside the company has the appropriate level of access can be far more disruptive than it initially sounds. That’s why it’s worth treating your Meta setup in the same way you would other important business systems.
Not sure who controls your Meta setup?
If reading this has made you think “Actually, I’m not sure who has control of ours”, that’s probably worth investigating.
You don’t need to start deleting things or creating new accounts. The first step is simply to understand what you’ve already got.
At Shine On Digital, we can help businesses review and untangle their Meta setup, including Business Portfolios, Facebook Pages, Instagram accounts, advertising accounts, people and permissions, partner access and tracking assets.
We can help you understand what’s connected, where control sits and where there may be gaps, unnecessary access or legacy setup that needs attention. The aim isn’t to make things more complicated. It’s to give you a clearer picture of your business’s Meta setup and help make sure you’re not relying on someone who left the business years ago to keep everything working.
Because you shouldn’t need the person who set up your Facebook account ten years ago to still be around before you can manage your own business.
Need help getting your Meta setup under control? Talk to Shine On Digital.
Call us on 01706 482017 or arrange a call back.
If you need help with your social media management, then visit our social media service page to find out more about how we can help.
